Short Summary

French airline pilots joined air-traffic controllers on strike on Wednesday (28 February) and the state-owned airline Air France was paralysed.

Description

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GV Orly Airport
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LV Control tower (2 shots)
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GV & SV People in airport (6 shots)
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Arrival & departure board (3 shots)
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GV Statonary aircraft including Air France (4 shots)
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GV BEA aircraft taxis in
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Initials ESP/0413 ESP/0422

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: French airline pilots joined air-traffic controllers on strike on Wednesday (28 February) and the state-owned airline Air France was paralysed.

The pilots stopped work to back demands for more pay. At Orly on Wednesday there had only been 144 arrivals and departures by mid-afternoon. The airport normally handles about 60 flights a day.

The reduction was mostly due to cancellation of French flights. Foreign pilots apparently did not back their French colleagues and practically all foreign companies operated their scheduled flights.

As the air traffic controllers' strike continued, military command of control towers kept foreign airlines flying almost on regular schedule.

SYNOPSIS: Orly Airport, Paris, was badly affected on Wednesday as French pilots joined air traffic controllers on strike.

The pilots stopped work for forty-eight hours to back demands for more pay. The flights of the state-owned airline Air France were paralysed. But foreign pilots apparently did not follow their French colleagues.

By mid-afternoon on Wednesday there had been only one-hundred-and-forty-four arrivals and departures at Orly. On a normal full day there are six hundred. The reduction was mostly due to the cancellation of French flights. Almost all foreign companies operated to schedule.

The air traffic controllers' strike continued. But military command of control towers kept foreign airlines flying almost on regular schedule.